Operation Christmas Child Final Purchases Update

I’ve wrapped up my buying for Operation Christmas Child this year!  If you’ll look in the picture to the left, there were some of the last additions to my stash.  The only thing that cost me anything was the soap.  I got each 3 bar pack for $.65.  $1.95 for all three.

As I was going through my stuff last week, I realized that I’m going to have plenty of stuff to pack more than 6 boxes!  The exception to that would be that I didn’t get washcloths this year and I really want every box to have one with it’s bar of soap and I’m short on toothbrushes if I’m going to do more than 6 boxes.  I just happened to stop in the Dollar Tree yesterday for newspapers and found out they were having a Customer Appreciation 10% off sale.  So I figured it would be the best time to grab those last few items.

I got two three packs of toothbrushes.  I like these packs because each toothbrush is packaged separately and the package is perforated – you can separate the packages without opening the toothbrushes.  3/$1.00 is the best deal you can find if you can’t find them for free!

I also got three 2pks of washcloths. So thanks to the 105 off sale, these items were only $.90 each.  $4.50 for it all.

So for this lot of stuff, I spent $6.45.  Add that to the $12.43 I’ve already spent and my total is $18.88.   My budget is $60 for 6 boxes ($10 per box) but each box requires a $7 shipping donation.  So shipping takes up $42 of my budget.  Which means I only have $18 to spend on items for 6 boxes.  BUT I’m going to pack at least EIGHT and possibly NINE boxes this year – for only $.88 over budget for 6!  Of course, each additional box requires another $7 donation.  But at a goal of $10 total per box – 9 boxes would cost me $90 but thanks to couponing and smart shopping all year long, I will be sending 9 boxes for just $81.88 – more than $8 under the $10/per box goal!  $63 of that is strictly shipping costs. (And if anyone wants to help with that, I’d be happy to let you since I’m taking on a couple unplanned boxes and an additional $21 in shipping!)

I hope you’ll consider couponing to OCC next year!  Stay tuned for ways you can still help this year!  Collection week is in less than a month!

Last year my boxes ended up in Uganda.  I can’t WAIT to see where they end up this year!